Embedding First Nations ways of being and knowing into the Scholarship of Learning and Teaching and Research of Higher Education Learning and Teaching

In this webinar, jointly hosted by the Council of Australasian Leaders in Learning and Teaching (CAULLT) and HERDSA/ASRHE, we draw on the wisdom of First Nations leaders in research and the scholarship of learning and teaching from two different disciplines (Allied Health/Social Work and Creative Arts) for their insights on how they infuse First Nations perspectives into their disciplinary research and the potential this holds for SoTL and research in higher education learning and teaching in general.

At the HERDSA Conference in Adelaide in 2024, Paul Callaghan (University of Melbourne) reflected on “the fundamental differences between Western and Aboriginal culture, pedagogy, epistemology, ontology, and axiology” and how universities required a process of “truth telling” “to create improved learning and research environments for Aboriginal students and staff that better support self-determination”. His keynote is published in advancing Scholarship and Research in Higher Education (ASRHE), HERDSA’s second journal: https://asrhe.org/index.php/asrhe/article/view/10483 . This keynote caused the editors of ASRHE to consider how higher education journals can better support and value First Nations scholarship and research to truly transform our higher education scholarship and publishing. This webinar aims to provide guidance on how we can commence this important journey.

Presenters:

Professor Simone Ulalka Tur is the from the Yankunytjatjara community, north-west South Australia and is the Pro-Vice Chancellor Indigenous at Flinders University. A particular focus of her leadership role involves integrating Indigenous Australian perspectives within university topics and promoting a greater understanding between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australian peoples and the broader Australian community. Her work also explores new spaces where all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples can re-engage and transform their understandings of Australia and what it means to be Australian from an Indigenous perspective. Simone is also part of The Unbound Collective – a collective of four Aboriginal women academics/artists, who enact critical creative responses to colonial archives.

Associate Professor Courtney Ryder is an Aboriginal ECR injury epidemiologist, Matthew Flinders Fellow, Discipline Lead for Injury Studies in the College of Medicine and Public Health and Co-Director of the Health Equity Impact Program for the Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute. Her research is leading new ways of working with Indigenous Data through knowledge interface methodology and Indigenous Data sovereignty to change the deficit discourse surrounding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health statistics. Courtney secured a 2023 NHMRC Investigator grant to transform injury for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children through innovative knowledge gain and co-designed intervention. With over a decade’s experience in higher education, Ryder is viewed as a leader in transforming student learning, her work has been recognised nationally and internationally, through keynote addresses, congress papers, case studies, teaching innovation and scholarship awards and a Churchill Fellowship.